Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways to earn money online.
One of the most common ways to do affiliate marketing is by writing affiliate blog posts that rank high on search engines.
But to get to the top of the search results, you need to work hard and smart. This is where ChatGPT can assist.
When used right, ChatGPT can be a tremendous time saver in writing affiliate posts.
This is a step-by-step guide on how you can use ChatGPT to maximize your affiliate revenue and save time.
Let’s jump into it!
Quick Primer: What Is Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is like being a brand ambassador for products that you love. đź’–
When you sign up as an affiliate for a company, they provide you with unique links or codes you can place in your blog posts (and other content like videos or social posts).
When your readers click on those links and make a purchase, you earn a commission. đź’°đź’¸
It’s a win-win situation — you get to earn some extra income while connecting your readers with products or services they’ll enjoy. 🎉
The two most common affiliate post types are:
- Roundup posts. A compiled list of “Best” products in the niche. For example, “7 Best Running Shoes”. Then on each product, there’s an affiliate link to the associated product.
- Product reviews. A post that reviews a particular product. For example, “Photoshop Review”. The idea is to place an affiliate link to the product review. If a reader is convinced, they might click your link to make a purchase and you will earn a commission.
You can use ChatGPT on both affiliate post types to make the writing process quicker and much more enjoyable.
Here’s the step-by-step guide.
#1 Create Affiliate Post Topics
Before writing an affiliate post, you need to find a topic.
Ask ChatGPT for affiliate post topics in your niche.
Simply say “Come up with 10 affiliate post topics about XYZ”, where XYZ is your niche.
For example, let’s say my niche is running. To come up with running-related affiliate post topics, I can just ask ChatGPT “Come up with 10 affiliate post topics about running”.
Keep in mind, though, that ChatGPT only suggests very generic topics. In other words, you will most likely face a ton of competition.
For example, something like “Top Running Shoes” is a topic that has been covered by big players like Nike or Adidas. Good luck trying to outrank those!
This brings us to the next step, which is, doing some competitive analysis.
#2 Do Competitive Analysis
By doing competitive analysis for your affiliate post topics, you ensure:
- There’s not too much competition and you have a chance for ranking high.
- There’s at least some demand so your work doesn’t go in vain.
So, open up Google and search for the affiliate post topics that ChatGPT gave you.
See what kinds of results show up.
- If there are tons of ads and big players in the niche, your chances of ranking high might be slim to none.
- You can also use the “allintitle:” search operator to check the number of competing posts. If this number is more than 1,000, there’s probably too much competition.
- But if there are smaller “one-person” blogs at the top, that might be a great chance for.
- If there are no blog posts about your topic, that might mean there are no affiliate programs to join. Also, it could mean no one is searching for that topic.
Also, if there are videos or images in the search results, that might mean a blog post is not a great fit for that topic.
#3 Get Affiliate Links
Before locking your affiliate post topic, you need to make sure there are affiliate programs you can join.
Once again, open up Google and search for “XYZ affiliate programs” where XYZ is related to your topic.
For example, if you want to write an affiliate post about VPNs, you can search for “VPN affiliate programs”.
Big companies usually have partner programs you can join with a simple application form.
However, it might take a couple of days before you hear back.
Also, don’t get frustrated if you don’t get accepted to a particular program. You can join other similar affiliate programs and promote their services.
#4 Test the Products
Before using ChatGPT to write the affiliate post, you need to test the products you want to promote.
If you’re doing software reviews, you can sign up for free trials and try the tools while lying on a sofa.
If you’re testing physical products, you can request your partner for a free sample.
While I highly recommend testing all products before including them in an affiliate post, there are a few scenarios where it may be okay to omit the testing process:
- Curated Recommendations: If you’re writing a roundup post based on recommendations from trusted sources, experts, or user reviews, you can mention that the products in the roundup are selected based on their reputation.
- Limited Availability: Certain products may not be readily available for testing due to factors like geographical restrictions or limited access. If you want to feature these products in your roundup, you can provide relevant information based on reliable sources, such as manufacturer specifications, expert reviews, or user feedback.
- Niche Products: In niche industries where access to products for testing is challenging (or expensive), it may be impractical to test every item. In such cases, you can rely on in-depth research and expert opinions to write the post.
Just remember to disclose that you’ve vetted the products well instead of testing them!
#5 Use ChatGPT to Write the Post
After extensively testing/researching the products, you can ask ChatGPT to write a post given the information you provide it with.
Ask ChatGPT for outline examples and structuring advice.
But more importantly, you can ask ChatGPT to turn your notes into a full-blown blog post.
This is a time saver.
Instead of writing thousands of words of content, you can give ChatGPT bulleted lists of key points and ask it to turn those into full-blown text chapters.
For example, here I’m asking ChatGPT to turn my bulleted list of key experiences into a blog post:
The output is awesome. Instead of having to put time and effort into being creative, I can use ChatGPT to pretty much automate that part.
Of course, you need to read through the AI-written content to make sure it’s in line with your opinions.
Besides, you need to add illustrative images to the post as well. No one wants to read through a wall of text these days. For instance, in the above review, I would add a couple of images with the shoes on.
Last but not least, make sure your affiliate post is the best. I can’t emphasize this enough. If your post has less information about the products than your competitors, you won’t rank high.
Nonetheless, ChatGPT cuts out a huge chunk of the writing process. This allows you to focus more on testing products and other tasks that the AI cannot yet do.
#6 Ensure No Plagiarism
Before publishing your affiliate post, it’s a good idea to make sure the content is 100% original.
Of course, you also want to make sure that ChatGPT didn’t change your take either.
ChatGPT generally writes unique content that it thinks is the best fit for your input.
However, there’s always a chance ChatGPT accidentally repeats something it has seen on the Internet.
To make sure your post is plagiarism-free, you can use free plagiarism checker tools, such as Duplichecker.
For example, here I’ve used Duplichecker to test the post I generated in the previous step.
As you can tell, it says 0% plagiarism and 100% unique.
To be honest, this is usually the case. ChatGPT generates content that is not plagiarised and that is in its own words. But better safe than sorry!
#7 Publish
If your post has no plagiarism, it’s ready to go!
Import the post to WordPress or wherever your blog is hosted and hit that publish button!
Wrapping Up
And there you have it folks! This is how you can speed up writing affiliate posts with ChatGPT.
I think there are two important key takeaways here.
First of all, even though ChatGPT is amazing, you’re responsible for doing the groundwork, such as vetting or trying the products.
ChatGPT only cuts a small fraction of the total time it takes to produce a post like this. Writing is just the final phase of producing a successful affiliate post. To provide value, you need to work hard.
But then again, ChatGPT will save most of your time when it comes to actual writing. It takes a really long to write a 5,000-word affiliate post from scratch. But with ChatGPT you can get one done in an hour or two.
Thanks for reading! Happy writing and happy experimenting.